Glide Factor in Review – Slide To The Left and Slide To The Right..

Glide Factor is a new accelerometer based game developed by Sprimp and published by Chillingo. Chillingo thus far has been on a role with fantastic games such as The Quest, iDracula, and Vector Tanks. Though it hasn’t attracted much attention yet, Glide Factor is sure to be a new gem at the App Store.

A picture is worth 1,000 words...

Glide Factor consists of four worlds: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta – each with 5 levels for a total of 20. Individual worlds have different colors, schemes and things to avoid. Not to mention, the fantastic retro-techno-style beat music differentiates between each world. I love the music in Glide Factor; it reminds me of Lumines and suits Glide Factor very well.

Your objective is to complete each level as fast as you can to earn badges (achievements) and 1-3 stars depending on how much health you have left at the end of the level. In order to complete each level, you must survive without crashing into any of the many obstacles that litter each level. For the most part, these objects are just cubes that don’t bother you unless you crash into them. But as you complete each level, the game increases in difficulty. Soon enough you will encounter moving objects that are hard to evade. One of the more difficult obstacles is a little ship that I’ve named “Mr. Annoying”. Mr. Annoying can appear at any time in a level, and more than once. This ship will stay directly in front of you, and match your lateral movements until, all of a sudden, it will speed straight at you, so you must be swift to escape its wrath.

The controls for Glide Factor work marvelously well. By tilting your iPod forward or back, you increase or decrease the speed of your ship. By tilting to the left or right, your ship moves either to the left or right. If you continue to tilt your iPod forward, your ship will eventually hit a maximum speed which is diplayed in a bar at the right hand side of the screen. The gameplay isn’t very fast paced even at maximum speed, but that’s not a bad thing. It is very easy to maneuver around simple obstacles and speed past the white boxes which disappear for a few seconds before they reappear again.

Glide Factor can become quite challenging, but there are four items (powerups) which will help you along the way. One of these powerups is a shield which makes you invincible for a few seconds. I highly recommend you put the pedal to the metal and go full speed whenever you obtain one of these essential items, so you can cover as much ground as possible and get through the level fast. To track your progress, just check the bar at the bottom left corner of the screen. Your life bar can protect you for 4 hits. On the 5th hit, it’s Game Over! There are a couple hearts in each level which will restore 1 piece of your life bar. The clock powerup reduces the timer by 1 second. Though it seems like only a measly little second, it can mean the difference of first or second place in the online leaderboards (scoreboards). Lastly, there is a bomb powerup. Once obtained, you only have a few seconds to activate it. To activate the bomb, just shake your iPod without trying to mess up the movement of your ship (I’ve lost more than once by messing up when activating the bomb). Once activated, the bomb will obliterate everything on your screen.

We're Number One! We're Number One!!!

There are badges aka achievements that can be earned throughout Glide Factor. There are 15 badges in total, ranging from bronze, silver, to gold depending on the difficulty of the achievement. The addition of badges adds a lot of replayability to Glide Factor. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “I’m an achievement freak!” I’ll be playing Glide Factor nonstop for the next several weeks before I have satisfied myself with all 15 achievements.

The only thing I find that is missing from Glide Factor is levels. While there are 20 levels, the iPod fanatic in me is still not satisfied! In a future update, added levels would be much appreciated (such as a world for the rest of the 20 letters of the Greek alphabet- Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, etc.).

Glide Factor is a great game and massive time killer. It’s just another of the fine works of art that Chillingo has published. With fantastic music, achievements, online leaderboards, and 4 worlds to explore- Glide Factor definitely earns a Grab It rating and my high recommendations.